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The 4400 (TV series)
The 4400 (pronounced "the forty-four hundred") is a science fiction TV series produced by CBS Paramount Network Television in association with Sky Television, Renegade 83, and American Zoetrope for USA Network. The show was created and written by Scott Peters and René Echevarria, and it stars Joel Gretsch and Jacqueline McKenzie. The series ran for four seasons from 2004 until its cancellation in 2007. In the pilot episode, what was originally thought to be a comet deposits a group of exactly 4400 people at Highland Beach, in the Cascade Range foothills near Mount Rainier, Washington. Each of the 4400 had disappeared at various times starting from 1946 in a beam of white light. None of the 4400 have aged from the time of their disappearance. Confused and disoriented, they remember nothing between the time of their disappearance and their return. Episodes The 4400 ran for four seasons. The first season is presented as a miniseries of five episodes, which aired weekly from July 11, 2004 to August 8, 2004. Seasons two, three and four are each 13-episode seasons. A special episode, "The 4400: Unlocking the Secrets", aired between seasons two and three, on June 3, 2006, originally on NBC. Production of the third season was shot in Vancouver until July 26, 2006. The third season premiered June 11, 2006, with 4.2 million viewers tuning in. Executive Producer Ira Steven Behr described season three as "bigger and more mythic. It feels like 26 episodes instead of 13 because we're cramming so much stuff in". Production of the fourth and final season began in early 2007 for a mid-year premiere, returning with the episode "The Wrath of Graham". Billy Campbell, the actor who plays Collier, took most of season three off to sail around the world,. The show was rewritten to explain the character's absence, making him the victim of an assassination attempt. In the fourth season, Campbell returned to the series as a regular, rather than a guest star as in the previous three seasons, with the revelation that the character had been alive after all, but had wandered as an amnesiac for two years until he reappeared to assume his role as the leader of the 4400. Cancellation Writer and co-creator Scott Peters announced on December 18, 2007 that due to the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike, budgetary problems, and lower-than-anticipated ratings, The 4400 had been canceled and would not be returning for a fifth season, despite the fourth season's cliff-hanger. Fans of the show mounted an unsuccessful campaign to resurrect the series, sending petitions and sunflower seeds to SciFi and USA Network president Bonnie Hammer. In April 2008, the campaign shifted to target Jeff Zucker, president and chief executive officer of the NBC/Universal TV group, again without success. Books * The Vesuvius Prophecy, by Greg Cox, is the first book based on the series. It was released in June of 2008. Set during the show's third season, the plot revolves around Maia's prophecy of the eruption of Mt. Rainier. * Wet Work, by Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore, is the second original novel based on the series. Published in October 2008, it is set during the show's second season. Its plot concerns Tom and Diana's hunt for a rogue government assassin who uses her promicin powers to kill people. * Welcome to Promise City, by Greg Cox, is the third book based on the series, and the first set after the events of the end of the series. It was published on July 28, 2009. * Promises Broken, by David Mack, is the fourth book based on the series, and the second set after the end of the show. It was published on October 27, 2009. Production The theme song of the show is "A Place in Time", written by Robert Phillips and Tim Paruskewitz and performed by Amanda Abizaid. All seasons are filmed in high-definition with closed-captioning. USA Network broadcast episodes after season one in fullscreen 480i; the DVD releases contain the episodes in their native widescreen format. Filming Locations The 4400 is set in Seattle, but actually filmed in the Vancouver area. All the cars shown in the series have fake Washington license plates, with other street signs and identifying markers altered to eliminate any British Columbia references. The high-tech, glass-walled 4400 Center is actually the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts at the University of British Columbia, and Capilano Lake stands in for Highland Beach. One episode of season 4 has a few scenes set in Vancouver. Other cable science-fiction series, such as Kyle XY, Stargate Atlantis, and Battlestar Galactica have also used the Chan Centre as a filming location. Reboot The CW is reimagining The 4400. It'll be co-written and executive produced by Taylor Elmore and Craig Sweeny. Elmore will be the show's showrunner. No set release date. Deadline References Category:Content